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12/10/2012 @ 9:35PM5,286 views

It’s a painful lesson that many website owners learn the hard way. While link building is a vital part of search engine marketing (SEO) for a website, many SEO professionals, or “SEOs,” go too far. Yes, an aggressive link building strategy can get your site ranked higher on Google quickly, and the same tactics that created the success can cause your site to tumble the instant Google updates its search algorithm. Why?

Google designs its search algorithm to show sites that people like first. One way it determines how well a site is favored is by counting the links that go back to the site. When the anchor text matched to a link contains a term relevant to the content on the linked page, Google sees that as a confirmation that the link is what the searcher is seeking.

Where SEOs Go Wrong

SEOs use this knowledge to promote sites through several methods. They may write articles for another website and use a byline from the author to create a relevant link back to the site being promoted. They may leave comments on relevant forums and blog posts with links back to the site. These methods weren’t problematic until some SEOs took them too far with “link spamming.”

They used tactics like paying for links, article directories and blog networks, all designed solely for the purpose of building links. They build sites solely for linking back to other sites they wanted to rank well. They overused press releases to get their links in news websites. Like the proverbial bad guys of the old west, they ride what has come to be called “black hat” marketing techniques that offered big rewards, along with big risk.

Unethical Means Ineffective

Unfortunately, SEOs like this are still out there, despite the risks and despite the fact that Google updates have made many of these techniques useless. They do it because innocent business owners, looking to hire a professional to build their web presences, don’t know any better. Many have no idea they are paying someone to destroy their web presence.

A new genre of SEO agencies is emerging because of this problem. These agencies focus on ethics in SEO. They take the time to outline the methods they use to market a website. These SEOs focus on slow but steady link building and other marketing techniques that build your site’s reputation and audience without putting your site at risk for a fall the next time Google changes its algorithm.

The New Rules of Ethical SEO

Pratik Dholakiya, Lead SEO Strategist & VP of Marketing at E2M Solutions, an organization that focuses on ethical SEO practices, outlines how business owners can avoid these unscrupulous marketers. Look for the following key components:

SEOs should have a policy of marketing techniques outlining the methods they use to build links

Look for a proven track record of success through case studies and client testimonials

Compare rates among different providers; exceptionally low rates are a sign of poor quality

Ask for a detailed plan of how the agency plans to market your particular website

Seek out agencies that understand all the facets of internet marketing including website design, web development, and SEO (both onsite and offsite optimization)

Search engines are continually evolving their algorithms to stop the manipulative techniques SEOs use on websites to increase search visibility. SEO is no longer about jamming keywords into a website and going after a large volume of links. Look for SEOs that use a holistic approach towards optimizing websites for search engines.

In the new era of Ethical SEO,the process used to promote your website should be made crystal clear to you as the customer. Your SEO company should keep you updated about the practices they use to market your site by sharing reports and link data as they build your web presence.

Most of all, run from any agency that guarantees to put you on the front page of Google for a given search term. Even if they can put your site at the top of the search engines fast, the method required to do so is risky and will likely put you at the bottom of the search engines the next time there is a Google update.

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Comments

Google is trying to keep the competitors in fair rules and guidlines. However, there is always someone who will try to cheat the system and get ahead of everyone else. It is not simple to get higher rank and in front position, it takes time and persistence. Every day building links and popularity. That is the way in Google’s eyes for success.

This same article, albeit with a fresh coat of paint, keeps coming around trying to put some kind of good vs evil spin on SEO. “Ethics’ has nothing to do with SEO practices, nor do morals, nor does good vs evil. Its about QUALITY. Quality content, quality links, and quality optimization. Quality, as in not rehashing the same article that’s been written 50 times before. Stop trying to make SEO some moral battleground.

I agree with you Jessica. It all comes down to principles, morals, values, and just plain out doing the right thing. As far as ranking goes, obviously there is no direct relevance to morals, as Google is not judging us as a person. However, if providing SEO services, then one does have to have some type of values. If your a painter and you intentionally do a quick bad job, obviously your morals are not up to par, or taking money and not providing service then your morals are not right. I think the person who previously commented was referring to ranking not providing service.

Blair, I have to agree with you to a point. There are definitely some malicious people out there (evil). There are actually companies now that are advertising that they will use these devious tactics on a competitors website. If that is not evil in the SEO world, I don’t know what is.

As for Social Sharing making SEO dead, I have to disagree. While I believe Google is using social signals more than ever, if you head on over to YouTube and pull up some videos on Google’s Webmaster’s Channel Matt Cutts explains this in detail.

Overall I think this is a good article. I am waiting for someone to come out with the definitive Penguin Friendly SEO Plan.

Great article. I have been doing SEO for a long time. I have seen it all, which means the good, bad, and the ugly. There are some companies that will just spam links to any place that will take them. Now this used to work really well, but now a days it takes more than just links. Gone are the days where you could place your keyword everywhere on the page and rank on page 1 for that. There are so many factors that come into play that you can not just use 1 strategy. Hence, Google’s algorithm.

First, one must have a solid foundation. You do not build a house until there is the right groundwork first. Solid foundation means all on-page optimization must be done. (title tags, meta description, H1 – H6 tags, image optimization, correct text length, internal linking, correct navigation, W3C Validated, original and unique content, fresh content, and there are lots more). Once the foundation is laid, you can move on to off page optimization. Such as, linking (slowly and diverse), social media, press releases, social bookmarking, web 2.0 sites, forums, guest blogging, blog commenting, and there are lots more.

When building links, you need to be extremely careful that you do not send a red flag to Google. Some ways to do that are, too many inks too fast, link velocity constantly changing, high % of exact match anchor text, tons of low quality incoming links, and if you think what your doing could be harmful to your site it probably is.

Hey nice post indeed. Yeah, most SEO’s tend to follow old school stuff which results in Penguin and Panda penalties. Apart from this, as there is no rule book to follow, you will find so many baseless myths spreading around in the community… Bounce rate for example, I wrote a post on bounce rate few days back, it might help people to understand what actually Bounce Rate Is. link to my post is: http://socialmediatoday.com/baawraman/1070231/bounce-rate-and-seo

I have been looking for somebody who knows a lot about website updates. I have been wanting to take a class to learn more about it but I haven’t had time. So in the meantime, I ask other people who know more than me.

I feel that if more honesty was displayed over the internet, in the world for that matter, business and personal relations would be much more stable throughout the country or perhaps the world as a whole.

With a lot of unethical things happening in the SEO world Google had to come out with a smarter way and give a tough time to all those unethical means of SEOs by every time coming up with new search algorithm….. Google has recently launched Penguin 2.0. Penguin 2.0 is a much “deeper” algorithmic update with increased focusing on back-link patterns, anchor text uses and manipulative link building tactics… This would definitely bring some positive changes for small and local businesses.